Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
About
Christology
Israel/Palestine
Publications
KermitZarley.com
Archives
Categories
- Angels
- Blog Description
- Book Reviews
- Christian Living
  - Unconditional Love?
- Christianity
- Christology
  - Deity of Christ?
  - Holy Spirit
  - Incarnation?
  - My Change
  - Trinity?
- Church History
- Current Events
- War on Terrorism
- Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
- Eschatology
- Ezekiel 38-39
- Last Empire
- Primitive Weapons
- Film Reviews
- God
- Golf
  - Billy Graham
  - Karsten Solheim
  - Lee Trevino
  - Major Championship Winners
  - Masters
  - Purpose
  - Ryder Cup
- Gospel Harmonization
- Interview
- Islam
- Jesus
- Literary Announcements
- Monotheism
- My Books
  - The Restitution of Jesus Christ
- Old Testament
- Politics
- Society of Biblical Literature
- The Bible
- Trinitarianism
- Uncategorized
FREE NEWSLETTER

Home
Progressive Christian
Religion News
Trump Makes the U.S. Selfish Like Him

Trump Makes the U.S. Selfish Like Him

Last updated on: June 6, 2017 at 10:05 pm by Kermit Zarley

Trump Makes the U.S. Selfish Like Him 2017-06-06T22:05:41-07:00 Kermit Zarley

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

U.S. President Donald Trump ran his election campaign with the slogan, “Make America Great Again.” Yes, we needed to help a lot of people, mostly in the Midwest and Northeast. They were out of work or not making enough money because of a downturn in the economy relative to their job qualifications. The world is changing, and some people need to change with it in order to make a living. Perhaps there needs to be more re-education and training that the federal government subsidizes.

I think President Trump’s announcement to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord was a mistake in several ways. It is due partly to his narcissistic selfishness and shortsightedness. He thinks it is in the best interest of the U.S. to withdraw. But it will hurt our relationship with the world, which in the long run could hurt U.S. citizens economically even more. Some 95 nations are in the accord, and the U.S. joined only civil-war torn Syria and Nicaragua in withdrawing. That in itself is a pity. It angered our most trusted allies in Europe, especially Germany and France.

Trump brags about being a great negotiator. He said the Paris Climate Accord was bad for the U.S. and that he is willing to renegotiate it to get a better deal for the U.S. The thing that Trump avoids saying is anything about U.S. history of polluting the earth’s atmosphere. Scientists tell us that made-made global warming began with the Industrial Revolution, which the U.S. led. So, the biggest polluter of earth’s atmosphere since this global warming began, due mostly to the burning of fossil fuels, has been the U.S. per capita of population. Per country, China recently surpassed the U.S. to become the biggest polluter of earth’s atmosphere, with the U.S. remaining in second place. Thinking only of the U.S., like Trump does, is selfish because it’s unfair to other people in the world who will suffer from our failure to be good custodians of this planet.

Carbon emissions don’t leave our atmosphere and go into space. Rather, they stay here, pollute the air, raise its temperature, and even raise temperatures of oceans, which increases their volume, causes sea levels to rise. That is why the Paris Climate Accord requires the industrial U.S. to now reduce its carbon footprint more than it does for China, which is still a developing nation and therefore doesn’t have decades of history of air pollution that reaches back over 100 years ago.

Trump won’t agree to anything that will hurt jobs in the U.S., such as coal mining jobs. That’s selfish when you consider we have been the biggest polluter for generations and that continuing human-induces global warming is going to seriously hurt a lot of people in other countries in the world. Besides, there are only about 61,000 coal miners in the U.S.

The U.S. has been the leader in transferring to a renewable-fuel economy, which will still take several decades to fully accomplish. The State of California, the seventh largest economy in the world, has about the worst air pollution problem in the U.S. due mostly to its many gasoline automobiles and electrical generation plants. Yet California is the leader of this transfer in the world, and it is not hurting jobs. Just the opposite, California is also the leader in the fledging renewable energy industry. After Trump made his announcement to pull out of the accord, California Governor Jerry Brown went on television and delivered what I thought was very convincing speech that condemned Trump’s decision and insisted renewable energy is the future.

Some Republican billionaires in the oil and gas industry have been spending big bucks lobbying Congress and advertising on television to abolish former U.S. President Barak Obama’s Clean Power Plan and get the U.S. out of the Paris accord. Most prominent proponents of these activities are the Kansas-based Charles and David Koch brothers. Their oil and gas Koch Industries is the second largest privately owned company in the U.S.

In 2008, Koch Industries funded a political lobbying group called Americans for Prosperity. It drafted a pledge called “No Climate Tax” which read, “I will oppose any legislation relating to climate change that includes a net increase in government revenue.” By the time of the federal election in 2010, this group had gotten 165 members of Congress and candidates to sign this pledge. The result was that Congress soon rejected a cap-and-trade energy tax bill that would have reduced air pollution.

It is unfair for Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to represent all Americans as the majority leader of the Senate, yet advocate abolishing the Clean Power Plan and withdrawal from the Paris accord because Kentucky is one of the main coal-producing states in the U.S. But then, that’s American politics. Kentucky will never suffer from a rise in sea levels due to global warming, but South Florida already is, and it will only get worse for those Floridians. The rest of American citizens eventually will have to step up and subsidize Florida’s loss. Saving 61,000 coal jobs in time may not compare to that loss alone.

Right before President Trump attended the climate change meeting in Paris where he made his announcement to withdraw from the accord, many of the CEOs of our largest U.S. corporations spoke out publicly, trying to convince the president not to do it. They even included the CEOs of Exxon Mobil and Shell. The president’s own Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, who just resigned as CEO of Exxon Mobil to take that job, was for the accord. Other CEOs included those of Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, Disney, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, IBM, Tesla, Twitter, and Salesforce. But on this subject the president listens mostly to his chief strategist Steve Bannon and EPA head Scott Pruitt, two guys who haven’t done that much in life. That’s a shame.

President Trump also wants to significantly reduce U.S. foreign aid. More of the same. I suspect, as do a lot of Americans, that Mr. Trump hasn’t made public his income tax returns partly because they would reveal he hasn’t given much to charity compared to his wealth. If so, again, he wants to make the U.S. selfish like him.

The most apocalyptic book in the Bible is it’s last book, the book of Revelation. It says at the end of this present age, Jesus will return, bringing with him his kingdom from heaven (Revelation 11. 11-21). John the Revelator says to God concerning that time, “The nations raged, but your wrath has come, and the time for judging the dead, for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints and all who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying those who destroy the earth” (Revelation 11.18).

Previous Post

June 6, 2017

Are We Getting Less Sleep Due to Global Warming?

Next Post

June 7, 2017 "Why People Resist Being Persuaded"

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Angels Billy Graham Blog Description Book Reviews Christian Living Christianity Christology Church History Current Events Deity of Christ? Disarmament Eschatology Evangelicalism Ezekiel 38-39 Film Reviews God Golf Gospel Harmonization Health History Holy Spirit Incarnation? Interview Islam Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Jesus Last Empire Literary Announcements Major Championship Winners Masters Monotheism My Books New Testament Old Testament Politics Primitive Weapons Ryder Cup Science Society of Biblical Literature The Bible The Restitution of Jesus Christ Trinitarianism Trinity? Uncategorized Unconditional Love? War on Terrorism

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I was only seven years old when I became king and reigned for forty years in Jerusalem. Who am I?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Manasseh Joash (or Jehoash) Josiah Hezekiah

Books by This Author Books by Kermit Zarley Blog

See All Titles »